Bombay HC upholds life-term of 33-yr-old man who stabbed aunt

MUMBAI : The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday upheld the life sentence handed down by the sessions court to a 33-yearold from Pune for killing his maternal aunt by stabbing her 54 times at Mulund in 2010.

A division bench of justice Prasanna Varale and justice N R Borkar dismissed an appeal filed by the convict, Saket Vikas Panase, and also rejected his ground that no motive was attributed to him for committing the heinous crime.

The court said the prosecution case cannot be doubted just because no motive was attributed to him, or no investigation was carried out in relation to few articles which were found at the place of the incident.

HC held the trial court was justified in convicting the accused for the alleged offence based of the evidence on record.

Panase, a resident of Chinchwad area in Pune, is presently lodged in Kolhapur jail. He had challenged the sessions court order dated August 1, 2012, convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment for murder.

According to the prosecution, on August 25, 2010, Panase, then 21, who used to study mechanical engineering at G S Moses College of Engineering, Pune, came to the house of his maternal aunt Mangala Darbhe, 58, who resided in Mulund. Her son and daughterin-law had gone for work when the accused assaulted her with a knife and killed her.

The defence of the accused was that two unknown persons had assaulted his aunt. He claimed that his family had planned a trip to Africa and for that he and his family had to take yellow fever vaccines.

According to his version, on August 25, 2010, he completed all his paper work in Mumbai and visited his aunt. He had lunch at her place and then went to take a nap. He said after the doorbell rang and two persons forcibly entered the house, they tried to attack him with a sharp object, he defended and got injured and dazed. He heard the deceased cry for help, he saw she was lying in a pool of blood. He called his mother narrating the incident. www.mahapwd.com https://mahatenders.gov.in

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